Phi for All

"Sarah! Put your brother's nose back this instant!" "Quick, before the movie starts, somebody tell me how it ends." "I know I marked it FRAGILE, but just kick the box off the back of the truck!" "I'll have a lukewarm latté, please." "This is a pretty interesting employee manual." "I have a coupon for that butterscotch beef toothpaste." "I save my scabs." "I cook everything at 200°F for three or four hours." "Do you like it? It's a hair gel AND a pudding!"

I've used an ARIN whois search on some of the jerks we occasionally get here, but I already know their IP.

Terraform Mars!

Since it was midnight and very dark, I hope he got the right goat. If there is anything the world doesn't need it's another deadbeat da-a-a-a-d.

Hey! Who said he was the only one reading? Not fair! Don't the rest of us deserve to hear what you have to say? I can appreciate your analogy. It really bothers me that so many cultures, including parts of our own, put women in a subservient position. In my experience, I've come to realize that most of my own shortcomings are made up for by my wife, and that when we function as a unit we have a much higher level of competency. I appreciate the fact that women see things differently than men and view it as a benefit and not a detriment. Unfortunately countries are not like families and their processes and reactions are not as simple as we would want them to be. But outrage and condemnation are good things, especially in a democracy. They insure that the future generation will improve the process, refine it and make it more effective for more modern times. Your passion for justice is needed as a powerful tool for progress. I like hearing from young people who are frightened but determined, who haven't given up and become complacent. You show great courage so just remember that bravery is impossible without first being afraid.

They ARE condemning terrorism, the stories are out there. They just aren't front page because that doesn't sell as many papers or boost net revenue for commercial time. What do you do when some American extremist group does something horrible? What did most Americans do when Timothy McVeigh set off a bomb in OKC? They read the story and shook their heads and talked to their friends and neighbors about what a tragedy it was. Did "many" of them get worldwide airtime to condemn it? No. The press picked who got interviewed based on what people wanted to hear so they could sell the news better. Absolutely. I doubt you'd get many people to disagree. Glad to hear it's still you. Just bear in mind that they ARE extremists. If Timothy McVeigh had got hold of a nuke and set it off in Tehran, would you want Muslims to think you were to blame because you're an American and you didn't get on TV to condemn his actions?

Unofficially, there are over a billion and a half Muslims worldwide. If even 1% were bloodthirsty terrorist bombers bent on perverting the intent of their religion there would be 15 million of them after us. Believe me, the active terrorists you see splashed all over the newspapers may barely number in the tens of thousands. It doesn't sound like the Bettina I know to want to kill 100,000 people because a couple of them might be terrorists. Don't get me wrong. I detest terrorism on many levels, the foremost being that our response to it has done nothing but fan the flames. A heavy military response only gains followers for terrorists who are protesting against oppression. Bombs, tanks and planes to fight small terrorist cells is like using a rifle on cockroaches. Secondly, terrorism is ineffective. Terrorism is a propoganda tactic but militarily it is the biggest failure EVER. It has never won the terrorists anything strategic. No policy gets changed because of terrorist attacks (at least not the policies the terrorists were trying to change). If anything it serves only to increase military response, and THAT is what they really want. Terrorism only serves to allow a very small fringe extremist element to gain followers attracted to their seeming sacrifice against a much stronger foe. They thrive on the underdog syndrome and the more we match them hate for hate, the more power and backing they gain. Please understand why it is important for you to stop saying things like, "What I find disgusting about the Islamics is the fact that they try to kill as many women and children as they can thru suicide bombings instead of trying to kill soldiers." Compared to the vast majority, those with terrorist leanings are a tiny minority, but they grow in number as long as people like you keep painting them all with the same brush. You are condemning many people who object to terrorism as much as you do. I doubt that the majority of Muslims would ever hold you, a Caucasian from the US south, responsible for what the KKK has done in the name of Christianity in the past. Feel free to comment on the Islamic terrorists, but please refrain from racist remarks which assume all Islamics are terrorists.

This place has a ton of glow-in-the-dark solutions, including powders you can mix in water. It would be really cool if you could rig an aquarium pump to actually show the glowing stuff moving through the veins. I wonder if you could rig something to turn the pump on and off in time to a heartbeat? If you also had the sound of a heart beat it was timed to it would be totally wicked!

I've seen Christmas and arcade lights that use clear tubing and have lights synced to travel down the length of the tubing. Here's a link for rope lighting that may work for you. Looks kind of pricey to me because of the controller. You might also try running some kind of phosphorescent liquid or paint through clear tubing. That way you get the effect you want when you turn out the lights.

"I'm a leper and proud of it!" "I kind of like sand in my underwear." "The more blades they put in my razor the better I feel about it." "Who took my foot?" "I think paying more for my car than my parents paid for their house makes perfect sense." "I always wanted to hunt for buried treasure. That's why I don't mind cleaning the catbox." "Nothing says 'precision' like a chainsaw."

Please avoid generalizations like this. Like many other extremist movements both religious and secular, the acts of a few should not be blamed on the whole. Certain factions of Islam, like certain factions of Christianity, like certain factions of secular ethnic groups (i.e. White Supremicists), like certain factions of idealogical groups can behave in extreme, violent ways. Just because some anti-abortionists kill Planned Parenthood personnel is it right for me to assume all anti-abortionists feel the same? Just because some white people have hung people because of the color of their skin is it right for me to assume all whites feel the same? Just because some high school students have gone on rampages and shot up their schools and classmates is it right for me to assume all high school students feel the same? I know the news is full of hate and violence and sex. The news is like the Jerry Springer Show. Please don't believe that the people you see sensationalized are representative of the whole. Racism and discrimination are part of the problem, not the solution.

The flow of electrons in the DC current are one-way and continuous, so it's less stressful on whatever it's powering. AC goes back and forth between the source and what it's powering more than 50 times per second. This tends to burn equipment out faster. But DC current can't be stepped up or down, as swansont mentioned. Power stations can send out AC electricity in extremely high voltage to cover long distances and then transform it down for safe use in the home or office. In both AC and DC current, danger is a combination of many factors, including voltage, ameperage and resistance. I've had shocks playing around with furnace transformers and D batteries that were very high in voltage, but very low in amperage (and duration). It has been argued that the added pollution and cost of personal DC generators would be offset by longer lasting electrical equipment. I'm not sure if some of our modern equipment could be made to run off DC current (although computers can run on batteries, and all batteries are DC current). We're also not in a market condition that would survive very long if you only bought one set of light bulbs in your lifetime. Batteries are very interesting as a source of DC current. You should never throw away batteries that are making your flashlight dim or your cassette player sound funny, because those batteries will power a radio or a calculator or a clock for weeks to come.

"It takes just as much talent and effort to lip-sync to a song as it does to actually sing it." "Having big pouty sexy-looking Botox lips is infinitely more important than having the use of my lip muscles for things like facial expression talking and kissing." "I prefer packet ketchup." "Getting a huge tax refund is just smart fiscal management." "Nose piercing is a statement of uniqueness and rebellion. It says, 'I'm different, not like everyone else'." "I'm a purist. Give me a scoop of vanilla, a few M&Ms and some transmission fluid."

"No, YT2095, mercury fulminate does NOT make a good foot powder." "Sayonara³, you have no idea what you're talking about!" "I'm sure if you give her a pat on the head and tell her you're sorry AzurePhoenix will show mercy. It's not like she'd have monkeys whisk out your eyeballs or anything." "Sell shipping operations for six major US ports to a company from Dubai? Nobody's going to have a problem with THAT." "In My Memory sold her Hummer H2 because the windows were too small to dump her ashtrays and McDonald's garbage out of."

DC tends to be easier on the devices it powers (Edison made DC powered light bulbs with filaments that are still burning today), but AC can be pushed much further away (we could never have power plants supplying DC current). I remember hearing that Edison's original idea was to have everybody generate their electricity personally from small home generators so we could use DC current. I wish someone would come up with an affordable unit that was environmentally friendly but it would probably topple the economy since you wouldn't have to replace bulbs and blow dryers all the time.

"I always get in the fastest moving line (queue)." "Oh, I'd never want to be as good-looking as In My Memory. I do admire her modesty, though." "My internet connection is almost too fast for me." "AzurePhoenix is much too timid and can't seem to assert herself in a confrontation." "When I talk physics with swansont, Severian and Martin I get the feeling most of it is going right over their heads." "Dave, you made a mistake here in your checkbook."

Spanking is like white-water rafting. Your enjoyment of the experience depends on who is wielding the paddle.

"I wish my boss would figure out how to micromanage me a little more." "This job doesn't have enough paperwork!" "I've just come up with three new sitcom plots that have never been done before." "I think winning the lottery would just screw my whole life up." "I don't mind sitting behind this person doing 45 on the highway. It gives me time to think." "I don't mind being inconvenienced personally if it means society as a whole will benefit." From George Carlin (who started this a long time ago): "Please saw my legs off." "Hand me that piano."

I've been a bad poster! And I deserve a good spanking....

For that much weight you'd need more like 8"-10". Remember, standard gooseneck cables are usually around 1/2" thick to support microphones and lamps that weigh half a kilo or less. And attaching that to a single point on your TV would create it's own stress problems. I doubt the TV casing is made tough enough to handle it. You could try multiple thinner cables but now you're back to the aesthetic question. Twenty standard gooseneck cables would look kind of weird sprouting from the base of your TV and leading to a base. And one more time, why do you need the ability to offset from the base? Wouldn't it be much easier and cheaper to get one of the standard floor stands which tilt, swivel and telescope and just move the whole thing on the rare occasions when it's range of motion wasn't sufficient?

Science is not in the business of ruling things out. It merely assigns lower probability to those things which aren't testable and falsifiable. Logically, a good scientist recognizes improbable occurences are not impossible ones. Also, a creator is not incompatible with evolution, as long as the creator is not an impatient one. I actually enjoy the thought of a creator who does the least amount of effort possible to start the ball rolling and is willing to let time and process take care of the rest. When ID starts talking about a creator who can't be observed due to the nature of faith, it is not science and does not belong in the classroom alongside science. Those seeking religious instruction or faith-based solutions have other venues for such information.

Yes, if you lend me the side of your head.

Another reason why we moderate the news posts is so we can check to make sure it's science related. We're not allowed to run the story without permission. We ARE allowed to link and even excerpt from it if we are discussing it. The News Forum is there to debate about the news, not to view it. There are other outlets for that (that's why we give the links to the stories). The News Forum is not your news source, it's a place to talk about the news that's relevant. That's why we jump all over people who post links (in all fora) and then just say "Hey, did you see this?" We want your opinions on the stories, not a guide to what's in the news. Whenever you link to another site, you should be commenting on what's said there, not simply calling it out. If you simply think it was a fascinating article, tell us why, give us some direction for discussion.

Anything you made with a gooseneck design might start out tight and springy, but would quickly become loose and floppy with that kind of wieght on it. Add the fact that there's nothing standard like this and you've just quadrupled your costs. There are some standard floor mounts that will tilt, swivel and telescope up and down. Gooseneck-bendy will only add being able to acheive odd angles without moving the base. How often are you going to need that? There have been times when I've come to realize that the elaborate measures I'm taking on a project are not worth the rewards. Perhaps if you could elaborate on why the standard mounts won't work for you we could figure a fix. I swear, one of my clients has a Project Manager who's just like you. He gives me the bare bones of a problem and can't understand why I need more info to solve it. Every conversation with him is like pulling teeth.

The detector doesn't create the sound, but there isn't a detector I know of that won't have some type of sound accompanying it (microphone vibration, electric hum, blood pumping near the eardrum, etc.). Whether the tree makes a sound when it falls in a forest bereft of those capable of hearing it, well, that's another thread. If Buck had been outside the ship he wouldn't have heard it. If the rock would've hit his helmet he would hear it because the helmet is full of oxygen. As Glider points out, the outer part of the ear is for focus. You could still hear without the flappy parts.